Unitary printer s blanket



I F. E. EL'LIS.

UNITARY PRINTERS BLANKET.

APPLICATION FILED APR- 28, I9l7w 1,311,596.

I Patented July 29; 1919.

[71/0 enter Fran/bit Elli/s. H

cylinders of printing presses mm: E. ELLIS, or nnvnnnivressncnnsnr'rs.

Um'rAaY rnamnns BLANKET."

To all whom it may concern Be it known that" I, FRANK E. ELLIS, 'a citizen .of the United States, residing at Revere, in the county of Suffolk and. State I of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements, in Unitary Printers Blankets, of which the following is a specification.

The object of the present invention is to To explain more fully the utility of my invention I ,will, state that, the impression are of rigid and construction, being ordinarily cast iron,

* that a yielding resilient packing or cushion has also been of an improved blanket recently thin cotton clothjcalled a tympan cloth to' absorb "wet ink of the first on thepaper-when passing oier Such printing plates,v

. printingvs'urfaces, and low. spots of gre the second l pose'ofthis nventionis'to which will serve as the is required to be placed upon their surfaces so as to support the paper while being printed, compensating for errors in the printing plates and causing a uniform printedimpression to be made atall points. particularly the stereotype plates used'in newspaper printing, are seldom. truly but usually contain high ater or less magnitude Is the production of a which make impossl uniformly heavy and clear printed-impression on the paper, unless the paper is supported in such aiyielding and resilient man .ner that-it can give way under. the impact I p of high spots in the plates,

in contact withthe type faces in'the low spots thereof. H For this reason; it has been ';tl1e practice heretofore to pack or cushion impression cylinders with two or, more blanand is held up kets, as they are called, one being composed largely of vulcanized rubberaand the other being a so-called felt blanket of worven woolen fabric having a the custom; untilthe' advent y produced by me, to '--overlay' 'the felt blanket with a to act as a blotter impression impression cylinder. 'The purfurnish a blanket cushioning means for the. impression cylink Specification of Letters Patent.

cylindrical on their long felted nap. It.

sole packing or.

PatenteuJu1y2a, 1919 Application filed April 28, 1917. Serial No. 165',14=8.

der, thereby supplanting the multiplicity of heretofore required. This ob ect is accomplished by providing blankets and sheets a fabric or article'having the firmness required to hold the paper against the printing plates combined with the resilience necuced essary to cause the impression prod from all parts of the plate to be substan- -tially uniform. Another object is, to combine with these features the further characteristics of not being injured bythe oils contained in printers inks, and of having a surface so repellent to. ink,

having .the characteristics above broadly.

attributes herestated together with special "inafter noted in detail.

In the drawings," Figure l'is a sectional view of a fragment (of printerls blanket-embodying my present invention.

havingmy new a modification in blanket. x I Figs. 1 and Fig; 2 is reduced inscale from the normal actual dimensions. L

The embodiment of my invention shown in Figs. 1 and 2 granulated cork, the particles of which are joined together. by a suitableibinder, a backmg I) of textile fabric and a face nitrocellulose composition,- preferably in- -cluding. -suflicient castor oil or;

.drying oil in solution as keep it flexible and preve' ingxblliltlfi, and cracking;

applied to the impression cylinder -of a printing press indicated at d in Fig. 2, with the fabric backing layer or surface next to the face ofthe cylinder, and the nitrocellulose face exposed. It may be mounted and attached in'any desired way and by any suitable means, preferably by the means long t it from becom- 3 are enlarged in scale and This blanketv is or at least so slightly adherent to or absorptive of'ink, as not to loethe first impression, when I at thesecond impression.

I so Fig. 2 is a cross section of'the impression f the single unit:

comprises a body w of" other nonan emollient t0 and commonly used formounting blankets in I , the cylinder, attached to a fmountedin' this I Irotatedby an externally applied crank, in aLpawl or equivalent means from one side-of a longitudinal groove in the .facebf the' 'cylinder, and a take-up roll f groove and capable-of being necessary to remove wrinkles and prevent "wrinkles forming "in use.

The blanket here described possesses the following characteristics and useful ifea- I tllIeSu The material of which the body is time this .body, being of a when the blanket is stretched around the i built up to as great a made is elastic, resilient, and compressible -to a high-degre ,and. thus hasnthel qualities necessary to support paper agalnst the pres-' sure applied .by-a printlng plate, permitting the paper '1? yield wherever necessary, as when high" points of" the plate come against it, without being broken, and to returnthe paper whenI-such high points have passed'by, thus holding it always with suiiicientand' adequate pressure in contact with all parts of the'plate in turn. At the same manufactured conglomerate, may be made as thick or as thin as desired, wherefore a single blanket may be made to perform the functions of the plurality of blankets heretofore used. The backing layer is of textile fabric, which is firmly united over its entire surface, by adhesive to one face of the body, giving strength to the. blanket, taking the strain cylinder and preventing the body layer from parting.- The face, layer or coating c-has a two-fold function. One is that of lending strength to the blanket. This layer is preferably formed by applying successive films of nitrocellulose 'solution" in the liquid or .s'emi-liquid state and allowing -the volatile solvent therein to evaporate between applications. In this way the coating ma be thickness'as desired.

This material, nitrocellulose, has considerable tensile strength, and when combined with an emollient as I prefer. to use it, is

flexible and tough, but not brittle. It thus 1 adds much tov the strength ofv the entire printing surface, and maintaining acontinublanket, preventingthe body fromcracking' and parting at its exterior, but yielding under the pressure ofhighpoints in the ous, smooth, surface in contact with the rotarypress the after passmg the the second-impression and at that time the paper. The other function of the face layer s to prevent 'ofisetting of ink from the first impression on the paper when the second impression is being made. In a continuous .paper web, immediately first impression,

side which was printed upon at the firstimblanket toremove wet ink is sogreat that previouslyv it has been neces-. sary to provide a specialicovering of cotton cloth, called atympan cloth, to act as'a blotinvention, I do not restrict printers inks.

oes. to

has long life.

- pressien comes next to the secondimpression cylinder before the ink has had time to. dry. The capacity of the ordinary printers ter to absorb surplus ink. These tympan cloths quickly become saturated withink and must be discarded when thedegree of saturation is such as to to the paper. The nitrocellulose face layer that theundried ink on the paper will not adhere to it at all. Thus it does not carry, or ofl-set, ink from one part of the-paper web to'a following part" of the .web.

The modification shown in Fig. 3 differs from the construction'shown in Fig. 1 in that the textile fabric layer 1) is interposed between two layers 'a and a; of the body.

It might be sad that the fabric is incorl porated within the substance of the body, inasmuchas it is firmly united-by adhesive to the body material on its opposite faces. This blanket is provided with'a face layer 0 the same as that shown in Fig. 1. The purpose of this modification is to show that the position of'thetextile .fabric layer or sheet may be changed within the scope of the invention, being placed in any desired from the paper cause return of ink 1s so non-adhesive of, or repellent to ink location between theback face of the body and the surface layer 0. The function of the textile layer being to give strength,.it may be placed inany'position where it answers that purpose tothe best effect.

, While the materials which I have herein- 1 before named for the elements of the blanket are preferred, and are, claimed aspart of my the invention thereto, but nclude within my claims a blanket having the essential characteristics "herein defined whatever may be. the materials out of which it is made.

Thusan material having the qualities of compressibility, resilience, and elasticity,approximating those of cork conglomerate, may be used for the body; any material having smoothness toughness, and non-adhesive qualities approximatin' those of nitrocellulose may be used .for tie face or surface layer; and any material having strength and flexibility approximating those of suitable textile fabric may be used forthe strengthening layer or sheet'b.

scribed not only has the characteristics ali A blanket having the composition deready pointed out, but it does not absorb oil or ink and is therefore not deteriorated or otherwise affected by the oils'contained' in It.is also little affected by the pounding; or-impact action of repeated impacts'by t e priiiting cylinder of by surface frictlon with the paper, wherefore'it Finally it is relatively inexelasticity approximating that pensive to manufacture as compared with the rubber and felt blankets commonly used.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A unitary printers blanket or impression cylinder packing comprising a body having resilience and elasticity, a strengthening layer having greater tensile strength than said body and being flexible, united thereto, and a face layer on the outer slirface of said body, said face layer being tough and flexible, non adhesive to ink, and being smooth and homogeneous as to its outer surface; said blanketv being adapted for use as the sole packing of a printing press impression cylinder and to be so used with the said face layer uppermost. J

2.-The combination with the impression cylinder of a printing press, of a unitary packing comprising a body having elastic compressibility, a strengthening layer united to said body, and-a face layer applied on the outer surface of the body and being tough, flexible, smooth, and nonadhesive to ink, one face of said packing being in contact with the impression cylinder, and the said face layer being outermost and arranged to make contact with the paper web passing over the impression cylinder when being printed upon:

3, A printers blanket adapted to serve alone as the entire packing for a printing press impression cylinder, comprising a body of material which has resilience and of cork, and having united directly on the face of said body Which'is exposed to the paper being printed asurface layer of material which contains nitrocellulose and an emollient non drying oil, and is impervious, tough; and repellent to printers ink.

A. -A printers blanket comprising a body having resilience and elasticity approximating that of cork, and having on the face the paper being printed asurexposed to face layer tough, flexible and. repellent to printers ink and the blanket incorporating also in its structure a strengthening between the face layer and the opposite side of the body. v p

'5. A unitary printers blanket comprising essentially a body of granulated cork particles bound together and aface 'layer of tough and flexible nitrocellulose applied directly on the cork particles at one surface of the body, the face layer being adapted for placement next to the surface of the impression cylinder, and the nitrocellulose layer being adapted to bear on the paper being printed.

6. A printers blanket comprising a body containing cork in its composition, a textile fabric strengthening layer or sheet adhesively united to said body, and a facelayer of the side of the blanket opposite to of material which is impervious,

layer in a location a v I tough and flexible npn-brittle nitrocellulose deposited upon the outer surface of said bod v. 7 printers blanket comprising acork body, a textile fabric strengthening layer or sheet adhesively united to said body, and a face layer of nitrocellulose combined with a non-drying emollient united to the outer face of said body coating, 1

In testimony whereof if have afixed my signature. p FRANK E. ELLIS.

by deposition thereon as a t 

